Refrigerator-car door and means for operating same.



JJF. OGONNOR.

REFRIGERATOR OARDOOB, AND MEANS FOR OPERATING SAME.

APP LIOATI 0N FILED MAY 26, 1910.

1,023,164. Patented Apr. 16, 1912. F. 1 2 $HEETSSHEET 1.

J. F. OGONNOR.

REFRIGERATOR GAR DOOR AND MEkNS FOR OPERATING SAME APPLICATION FILED MAY26, 1910.

1,023, 1 64; Patented Apr. 16, 1912.

2 SHEETS-8H12ET 2.

ing to cause the packing to JOHN F. OCONNOR, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM H. MINER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

REFRIGERATOR-CAR DOOR AND, MEANS FOR OPERATING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 16, 1912.

Application filed May 26, 1910. Serial No. 563,544.

. are provided with a yielding or compressible packing backed up bysprings mounted in suitable recesses formed either in the doors or doorframe, and which packing, is compressed by the closing of the doors tocause them to fit very tightly and produce'etfec- I tive'heatinsulation, the meet-ing faces of the doors with each other or with thesurrounding door frame being beveled or wedgbe compressedby the doorclosing operation.

Heretofore in practical operation, great difiiculty has beenexperienced, both in forcing the doors snugly closed so as to properlycompress the packing betweenthe meeting or surrounding faces of thedoors and door frame, and also in forcing-the doors open, and,especially in cases where from exposure to wet or moisture either fromthe inside of the refrigerator car or from the outside, the door frameor doors become swollen.

And frequently in opening the doors they v are .very greatly injured byprying with crow-bars or hammering with sledges.

The object of my invention is to provide and combine with the doors animproved construction of operating mechanism therefor which will servenot only to forcibly close the doors under great pressure at the finalor closing movement when the doors are forced home, but also serve atthe initial port-ion of the opening movement to apply a very great poweror leverage in starting the doors open,

however tightly the doors may stick or however greatly the packing maybe compressed between the beveled or wedging meeting faces of the doorswith each other'or with the door frame, in order that the doors may beboth opened and closed without injury or hammering, and which willenable the compressible packing to be always so tightly compressed as toafford effective heat insulation, and in which at the same time themechanism employed for forcibly closing frame.

the doors and for forcibly prying them open may'be mounted andpractically combined with the-doors and door frame with but relativelyvery slight projection beyond the outside face of the car or of the doorframe.

My invention consists in the means I employ to practically accomplishthis object I or result as herein shown and described and moreparticularly specified in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure1 is a side elevation of refrigerator carrdoors embody ing my invention,and showing a portion of the upright side wall of the car. Fig. 2 is avertical, cross section on line 2 -2 of'Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 arehorizontalsections on lines 3-3 and respectively of'Fig. 2 and Fig. 5 isa detail horizontal section, similar to Fig. 4, showing the parts in adifferent position.

In the drawing, 1 represents a portion of the upright side wall of arefrigerator car, 2 the uprights of the door frame, 3, the sill and 4the lintel or upper horizontal member of the door frame.

5, 5 are refrigerator car doors connected by hinges 6, 7 at their outeredges with the uprights of'the door frame, and having beveled or meetingwedging faces 8 for engage ment with each other and'for engagement withthe corresponding wedging faces 9 of the door frame. At the meetingfaces of the doors with each other and with the door frame, ayielding orcompressible packing 10 is employed, mounted in a suitable packingrecess 11, and preferably having a rigid supporting strip 12, backed upby springs 13. The packing 10 at the outer faces of the doors which meetor close. together is formed in one of the doors. At the meetingfaceu'of the doors and door frame, the packing 'recess is preferablyformed in the door The doors are preferably furnished at their lower endfaces with a 'metal wear plate 14 secured to the lower wedging face I ofthe doors. g

The outermost of the two doors is provided near its free upright edgewith a longitudinal channel 15 to receive the operating shaft 16 flushwithin its outer face, and also with recesses or sockets 17 to receivethe bearings 1.8, 19 in which the operating shaft is journaled, saidbearings being secured to the door by bolts 20, the nuts of which fit inslots or-recesses .21 formed in the door for that purpose. The operatingshaft 16 and its bearings, 18, 19, thus project very slightly, if atall, beyond the outer face or line of the doors or door frame. Theoperating shaft.

the door closed under great pressure when the operating shaft is turnedin the direction to force the doors closed. Each of the keepers 23 alsohas a-coeperating jaw 26, having a wedge 'or operating face 27 whichengages the crank arm 22 of the operating shaft, and serves to force thedoor open when the operating shaft is turned in direction to open thedoor, a very powerful leverage being exerted at the initial portion ofthe opening movement, owing to the nearly tangential position orarrangement of the engaging or cooperating faces of. the jaws and crankarm or the wrist pin port-ion of the latter. And for the same reason,the doors are forced closed under very powerful leverage and the packingforcibly compressed by reason of the interengaging wedge faces of thedoors with each other and with thedoorframe as the crank'arm of theoperating shaft or the wrist pin portion thereof approaches thetangentialrelation to the face of the outer jaw 24. when the operatingshaft is turned sufiiciently to completely close the doors.

The operating shaft 16 is furnished with an operating lever 28 extendingfrom the crank arm portion 22 of'the operating. shaft below the doorsand having an upward bend '29 therein to bring the operating shaftagainst the outer face of the inner'door to enable the same to befastened or locked thereto by the interengaging door lever fastenerdevices 30 and 31 on the door and lever respectively.

As in my 1nvention,theupright operating shaft and its bearings aremounted in channels or recesses provided for their reception in theouter face of the door, and asthe crank arms at the upper and lowerendsof the operating shaft and the coeperating keepers project only veryslightly beyond the outer face of thedoor frame, and as the operatinglever projects or extends from the crank arm .below the doors andprovided with an upward bend to bring it against the outer face of theinner door, the door oper-. ating mechanism, as a whole, hassubstantially no external projection on the outside of the car, while atthe same time provision is made for exerting a very powerful pressure orleverage in both closing and opening the doors, since the axis of the'shaft is brought well in toward the middle of the.

' the edges of the doors. pears from Figs. 3, 4 and 5 of the drawings.

thickness of the heavy door the thrust-of the shaft is exerted withinthe outerface of the door and as near as possible to a perpendiculardirection from the bearing faces of the springpressed yielding packingthat seals This particularly ap- By mounting the operating shafts in themanner which I have shown flush with the outer surface oftherefrigerator car doors and securing the operating lever at a pointbelow the lower edge of the car door and extending the same upwardly sothat it lies flat against the ear door whenever the door is closed oropened, I am enabled to mount the same on refrigerator cars which aresubstantially four inches wider than has been customary in refrigeratorcars employing an operating shaft of the general 'type which I haveshown. Hitherto in the common construction of refrigerator carsemploying an operating shaft project-ing beyond the outer face of thedoor,

the door has been held away from the sides of thecar whenever the doorhas been swung back, and has thus been liable to be engaged byprojections on station platformsor adjacent cars, thereby ripping theoperating shafts or the doors from the cars.

As the.lever 28 extends from the crank arm '22 beyond the outer faces ofthe doors' and door frame and below the lower ends of thezdoors, thelever may be swung in opening and closing the doors through an arc of180 degrees, as will be readily un- 'derstood from Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 5of the drawing, thus enabling the crank arms or wrist pins thereof andthe interengaging jaws of the keepers to act effectively in opening andclosing the doors.

I claim 1. The combination with a door, of an op erating shaft flushwith the outer face of the door and provided with a crank arm at itslower end, a keeper engaging said crank arm and a lever extending fromsaid crank arm and having a portion adapted to'fit" I against the outerface of the door and lie flat thereagainst when the door is in its openposition, substantially as specified.

2. The combination with a door, of an op ,erating shaft having its axislocated below the outer face of the door, and provided with a crank armat its lower end, a keeper engaging said crank arm, and an operatlnglever extending from said crank and adapted to fit against the outerface of the lever comprising an upwardly extending door, said operatingshaft being adaptedto be given a half turn by said lever, said,

port-ion adapted to lie flat against the door when the latter is swungback.

3. The combination with a cardoor frame, of a 'door hinged thereto, and.provided on its outer face with aehannel, an operating Y jecting beyondthe upper and lower ends 0% shaft located Within said channel andprovided with crank arms at its extremities pro-,

horizontal and upwardly extending portions, the upwardly extendingportion being adapt ed to lie flat against the door when swung backthereagainst, and the crank arms and horizontal portion of the let '61assuming positions below the level of said outer face of the door whenthe lever is swung back against the door, whereby the door is adapt- 15ed to lie snugly against the car side, s',ubstantially as and for thepurpose described.

" JOHN F. OCONNOR.

Witnesses H. M. NIUNDAY, PEARL ABRAMS.

